Men aside , what did I know of passion ? I was not the god of fire , despite my fondness for it . It burned me to touch , turning my skin to dried tulips , as if to remind me I was the meekest god , but a drop of ichor above mortalkind .
I pitied them their toil , slurping raw meat and dying off in the cold . Should they stumble unwitting into Artemis ’ s woods , gods save them . She made sport of the uninvited , shot them clean through the eye , and le them bleeding and blue in the snow .
Then her cousin returned , the smell of the dead and their lord in her hair . She spoke of Hades ’ s cruelties and Artemis , horrified , swore a er all .
Man would not warp her as they had the other goddesses : Hera , corrupt ; Demeter , bere ; Persephone , hunted . She , Artemis , was queen of the hunt . Her spirit and sovereignty would not be wrested . She would teach other maidens to vow and to shoot and would save one doe every stag she felled . “ You swayed her ,” Zeus said , when Artemis le . I lowered my face . What could I have told her ? She saw the world and decided . He looked at me as if I were one of her deer . Innocuous , until bowing daggers . The other gods thought me a mad , old maid , dawdling by the fire while they turned the world . But Zeus saw a bank of strength and insight that might one day serve him — that must , if he asked . For twice he had saved me .
A er the Titan War , I had had two suitors . The sea god , Poseidon , and our nephew Apollo . I adored Poseidon , the depth and rush of him . Bronze arms and infinitude . Smell of salt and pine . But Apollo was wrathful . As a babe he slayed giants , and those who offended him he flayed and turned to stone . In contesting my hand , he would gouge the earth with arrows , and Poseidon would raise the seas against him . All in crossfire would bleed or drown . My love could end mortalkind . I would not allow the destruction of innocents . I swore virginity before the gods , placing my hand on Zeus ’ s head . My fingers shook amongst his curls . He felt the tremendousness of my